Layton and Katrielle - The Search for the Lost Future
by MTGentleman
Summary: "Layton and Katrielle - The Search for the Lost Future" is the sequel to my most read story "The Mysterious Mansion". You do not NEED to know what happens in that story, but it would certainly help. "Layton and Katrielle - The Search for the Lost Future" details the exciting, yet terrifiying journey Katrielle and her father, Hershel, take in order to reclaim her father's lost futu
1. Chapter 1 - The Molentary Express

Time: 06:30

Date: 20/12

Location: Layton Detective Agency, London

Sunlight slowly started to bleed through the minute gap between Katrielle's curtains; however, she was already awake at this time - to be precise, she was already sat at her desk pondering through her notebook.

Katrielle was looking between her notebook and, what appeared to be, quite an old and dusty notebook - "The Molentary Express - Hershel Layton" was roughly written on the front cover.

"How did this even get here by itself?" Katrielle asked herself as she held a brand new ticket in her left hand; she was inspecting it with her little magnifying glass whilst holding it up against the light to look for any imperfections.

Alas, she could not find anything wrong with it and all of her research from her father's notebook didn't lead to much as a lot of it was completely scrubbed away; but it was obvious that **_SOMETHING_** was written there, just wiped away.

But suddenly, there was a knock on her bedroom door; this surprised Kat, but she very quickly composed herself:

"Yes?" Kat asked, brushing her dress off quickly, she liked to keep herself nice and tidy, after all.

The door slowly opened, and low-and-behold, Ernest was stood there at the other end with a small, silver coloured tray table on his other hand.

"G-Good morning, Miss Layton. I-I b-brought you some tea and a s-scone that I thought you might enjoy to help wake yourself up" Ernest replied, holding out the tray and placing it upon her desk, making sure to not spill anything.

"Ah, thank you, Ernest - I am sure this will help!" Kat replied with her usual smile; she was **_STILL_** oblivious to the fact that it was obvious that Ernset liked her, but I suppose that is just how Katrielle is, right?

Just as Ernest was about to walk away with a slight flush on his cheeks, Sherl came strolling in and hopped onto Kat's bed completely unannounced;

"Hey, why are you up so early?" Sherl barked in his usual tone, kind of like an angry old man - which is basically what he is after all, right?

Kat rolled her eyes and chuckled a little to herself;

"Oh Sherl, what else do I do when I am not in the agency?" she replied.

"Stick your nose in books and follow in your father's footsteps?" Sherl said in a semi-sarcastic tone.

Kat smiled and gave Sherl a big thumbs up;

"You bet that's right!" Kat said with a huge smile on her face before turning around and picking up the aforementioned ticket to the Molentary Express.

"You see, Ernest and Sherl, I had this strange dream last night and when I woke up, THIS was on my desk. But nobody got in, plus it all seems too coincidental considering what my dream was about…" Kat said quietly, slowly starting to trail off in her own thoughts before Ernest interrupted:

"W-Wait a second, Miss. What was your dream about exactly?"

"Well…" Kat replied - "It went as follows…"

"P-Papa? Where are we going?" Katrielle asked, being walked through the park, her hands sweating a little from how fast they are having to walk; as one would expect, Katrielle did not like this in the slightest.

"P-Papa, please tell me!" Katrielle asked one more time, but to no avail.

Professor Hershel Layton did not respond to her calls, nor did he turn back to face her - he just faced forwards almost like he was purposefully ignoring her; after all, that's what anyone would think in a situation such as this, right?

Katrielle sniffled a bit as she was starting to get more and more confused as to what was going on; she just wanted answers and for "papa" to talk to her and tell her that everything is going to be alright. However, her sniffling was interrupted by a small yelp coming from her mouth as the two of them made a sudden right turn towards the edge of the park.

Much to Katrielle's dismay, the sky was getting darker and darker, the trees slowly stopped moving as the wind ceased to exist - the sound of echoing owls wrapped around the dead, lifeless trees like a snake to its prey; all that could be heard were the sounds of nature itself. Tree barks snapping, leaves crumpling, birds flapping - there was no sign of human life besides Katrielle and Hershel Layton.

The two of them had been walking for quite a while before Hershel finally sat down on a nearby bench and sit Katrielle just a little to his left.

"Katrielle..." were the words Kat could hear; however, she could tell that it wasn't coming from anywhere far away, those words were coming out of Layton's mouth!

"Katrielle...please don't cry..." Layton said softly as he tilted his hat down slightly, covering his eyes completely from Kat's vision; "See...this is what I wanted to show you..." Layton said - still speaking softly - as he pulled out a little pocket watch out of his breast pocket. The aforementioned pocket watch had a small picture on the underside of the lid; this picture was of someone very dear dear to the Professor.

"Who...?" Kat asked, still sniffling a little bit, as she evidently had no idea who the woman was in the picture: The woman had somewhat ginger hair, a nice aqua top and a little scarf around her neck. Unfortunately, the picture was faded slightly so it was difficult to make out any facial features; furthermore, there appeared to be a figure on the left hand side of the photo, but due to the faded photograph, it was just impossible to see who the other person was.

"I have spent the past year trying to gather information on this woman, who was once - and still is - oh-so-dear to me, and I feel like I am getting close. This woman, Kat, this woman's name is Claire."

"C-Claire? W-Well, what happened to her?" Katrielle asked in her innocent tone as always, just wanting to know what is going on.

"A long while ago, she sadly disappeared in a freak accident involving a time machine and explosion. Then, a little while ago, we met up once more before she vanished into thin air. Ever since then, I have made it my mission to help find Claire once more and keep her with me until our days run out"

As the Professor was saying this, Kat leaned onto him and hugged him tightly, evidently noticing that he was definitely feeling sad - ot at least feeling uneasy. After the Professor had finished, he took a hold of Katrielle's hands and gently placed the pocket watch inside them. Katrielle looked at him confused, but her hands were slowly closed tightly by the Professor.

"I'll see you soon, Kat. Sweet dreams" was the last thing Kat heard before she suddenly fell asleep and things faded to black.

"I understand that my father went off on a trip a little while ago, but I am just struggling on what to think regarding all of this" Katrielle said after recapping her dream word for word - it was apparent that it stuck with her on a deeper level than either Ernest or Sherl were expecting.

Ernest smiled and gently took the ticket from her hands as he turned it around, noticing a slight insignia on the bottom left hand corner;

"Look, M-Miss! It's your detective agency's logo right there!" Ernest said, handing the ticket back to Katrielle, a little excited but also confused as to why it was there in the first place.

Kat gladly took it back, inspecting what Ernest had noticed; however, it was at this point that her eyes widened and she dropped the ticket to the floor. Kat immediately turned around and started to frantically search through the pages of her father's old notebook, slight tears forming in her eyes.

"M-Miss Katrielle, is everything ok?" Ernest asked, leaning towards her with sincerity and concern.

"Oh you clever little...I guess it was real, wasn't it?" was what Ernest and Sherl could hear coming from Katrielle; the two of them just looked quite confused at each other, thinking that Kat had gone a little bit crazy.

All of a sudden, Kat wiped her eyes and turned around once again to face Ernest and Sherl - this time, she had her father's notebook in her hand and was pointing to a certain page with a certain emblem.

"Katrielle, why are you pointing to your obvious teardrop on the page?"

Sherl barked

"No, silly!" Kat replied - "Look, look at what my father drew!"

Ernest leaned in closer, inspecting the circle that she was pointing to; it was then that he realised the correlation between what had just happened and what she was pointing at - Ernest immediately picked up the Molentary Express ticket once again, looking at the insignia on the back.

"Hang on, Miss. B-But they're the same. It looks a bit like yours!" Ernest spoke somewhat timidly, but he was starting to get the picture.

"Exactly, Ernest!" Kat said while gently patting his head, thus causing a nice pink colour to flood his face; Sherl just rolled his eyes.

"This isn't **_MY_** insignia, this is **_HIS_** insignia! But...how could my dream have been real?" Kat started to ponder, letting Ernest and Sherl think to themselves as she gathered a few of her things, including her signature hat - her hat which she oh-so-delicately placed upon her head.

"W-What are you doing now, Miss Katrielle?" Ernest asked, still with a slight blush on his face;

"Isn't it obvious? Getting on that train of course! My father's insignia is on it; he must have something planned, surely!" Kat replied while packing up her stuff into a small little bag which she placed on her shoulders.

"Look, your father is away on a trip - you know that" Sherl replied, a little skeptically - "I can smell something fishy; as a dog, I should know, you know!"

Ernest chuckled a little, but quickly composed himself;

"D-Do you need me to accompany you to the station, Miss Katrielle?" he asked.

"I suppose so, yes. After all, I do not know how long I will be away!" Kat replied in her usual happy tone.

It was about 10 minutes later when the two of them set off walking for the local train station which was about a 20 minute walk away from the agency. All the while, Ernest tried to slowly hold her hand, but Katrielle being the naïve person that she is, would always be oblivious to this and point her arm at buildings while making conversation.

Ultimately, Katrielle and Ernest arrived at the station where two of them ultimately had to say their temporary goodbyes to each other:

"Hopefully you will come back soon, Miss Katrielle" Ernest spoke with a tone of slight sadness;

"Oh, silly! Of course I will, but you know I will ring you up non stop - that's just how I am!" she replied;

Ernest couldn't help but laugh at her, knowing that he would miss her but still be happy.

"Regardless, Ernest. Please look after Sherl for me; make sure he doesn't get into any trouble - I trust you for that" Kat said quieter, winking at the end before turning around and walking off - "Ta-ta for now, Ernest!"

Ernest's blush grew stronger and stronger as she walked off, but he waved and started to walk back towards the agency - that fleeting second, that wink, being etched into his mind permanently. Was Kat showing interest in him? No, of course not, this **_IS_** Katrielle we are talking about here!

Luckily for Katrielle, it didn't take long for her to get through the ticket barrier until she got to platform 1 - where the great Molentary Express was **_stationed_** (nice pun, me).

Kat slowly approached the second out of the four train carriages before being stopped by a train guard;

"Excuse me, Miss Katrielle Layton, is it?" the guard asked.

"Yes of course, is there a problem here? My ticket is here" Kat replied, showing her ticket to the guard.

"Oh no, that isn't the issue here, I just need to direct you to your correct train carriage, the one just on the right here". The guard was pointing to the first carriage - the carriage right behind the train, the 1st one.

"Also, it seems like you have a guest on board who seems rather happy to see you" the guard added.

"Oh? Who is it?" Kat asked, growing ever more curious.

"I do not know his name as I am new here, but he mentioned he had been on this train before; he astounded me with the most amazing puzzle, too, miss!" the guard chuckled a little - "I just couldn't solve it!".

Kat immediately ran towards the first carriage, boarding hastily before turning to her immediate left - as she looked, her eyes immediately swelled...


	2. Chapter 2 - Case 1, The Train Guard

Kat immediately ran towards the first carriage, boarding hastily before turning to her immediate left - as she looked, her eyes immediately swelled…

On one of the only few tables in the carriage, there was a single letter with Hershel Layton's insignia stamped onto it with wax; it stuck out as quite ornate to Katrielle. Kat slowly walked up to the sealed envelope and slowly started to open it, making sure to not damage the seal as that was just a habit of hers; after opening it, Kat started to read the contents of the letter out loud to herself:

"Dear Katrielle,

How are you doing, my girl? Papa misses you ever so much and I am ever-so-glad that you are reading this letter of mine. Now, as you are aware, you are currently situated inside the 1st class carriage of the Molentary Express and I can also assume that you found my ticket. Now, I know you are wondering how it got there? Let's just say that it wasn't all a dream after all.

Furthermore, you may be wondering where I am exactly;

As for the answer to that question, I created a little puzzle that only YOU can solve, well it is more of a riddle:

Clue #I: I am somewhere you have been before

Clue #II: I wouldn't consider myself to be 1st class

Clue #III: How did I know you would come to the train station?

Clue# IV: Hopefully the train guard was nice and friendly to you!

Clue# V: Didn't he say that he was new?

And lastly:

Clue# VI: If he was knew, how did he know your name?

As Kat read these clues out, she sat down in one of the chairs and she studied the letter very carefully, trying to figure out what her father meant by all six of those clues and why some of the letters were in bold. Perhaps they were important? Of course! She knew her father after all; she figured there would be something between the lines of the letter.

Katrielle thought over this for a few minutes before realising there was a connection between the bold words:

Before, 1st class, train station, train guard, he was new, your name; it was at this moment that a sudden thought came into her head:

"How DID he know my name?" she asked herself before standing up and literally shouting "EUREKA!".

Kat immediately turned around and ran out of the room, heading towards the 2nd class carriage; this was where the aforementioned train guard was sat down, taking care of some tickets with his ticket machine strapped around his right shoulder.

"Is everything ok there, Miss Layton?" he asked, looking up at her and proceeding to smile.

"How did you know my name if you are new here?" Kat asked, trying to get some answers out of the train guard;

The train guard chuckled;

"Regardless, how was that guest of yours? Did you enjoy talking to him? Did he astound you with puzzles as well?"

Kat smirked a little in response;

"Oh, don't worry he did! He even left a nice little riddle for me" she said before turning around.

It was just after she turned around, that she instantly stretched out her arm towards the train guard and pointed just like her father did.

"I bet YOU enjoyed writing that puzzle, didn't you, papa?"

The train guard smiled and chuckled before slowly standing up, taking off his ticket machine;

"It took you less time than I expected; I definitely trained you well, didn't I, Kat?". The train guard slowly took off his uniform and waistcoat, revealing a brown-ish coloured jacket underneath.

Low and behold, a slightly orange coloured top was peeking out underneath.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Hershel replied, bowing a little and tipping his hat towards his daughter;

Layton couldn't even finish what he was saying before getting attacked with hugs - it made sense due to the fact that it had been quite a while since they had last seen each other.

"B-But how did the train ticket end up on my bedside table? Things in dreams cannot become reality!" Katrielle asked, looking visibly concerned and confused; however, deep down inside, she was very glad that it did indeed happen. Why? Because she was able to get see her father after such a long time.

Layton chuckled to himself a little bit before replying;

"Do not worry, fair Katrielle, all will be revealed when the time is right. But for now, I think we need to relax and enjoy the journey, don't you think?"

It was a few moments later that the doors of the train closed and the sound of a coal engine could be heard firing up and getting into action; a minute or so later, the train's breaks were released and the Molentary Express finally set off for its destination.

"Where are we headed to, Papa?" Katrielle asked;

"First stop, Misthallery" Layton responded, chuckling a little and relaxing into his chair.


End file.
